Talk:Tiberias Calore "Cal" VII/@comment-184.151.111.124-20161212045937
I'm late to the party and am nearly finished Red Queen, but let me just say I hate Cal. He's so boring and the typical choice. I was really rooting for Maven up until the twist, and I'm still mad about it. For once it'd be nice if the nice love interest, who despite being seen as weak and forgotten by higher ups, could actually stay the cool, brave, kind and great match for the main girl. Or at least, even if he dorsn't become an evil psycho, he would get the girl instead of the obvious overused cookie cutter. Hunger Games and Twilght (the garbage that it is) made me angry with that. For once I'd like to be pleasantly surprised that the guy who does everything in his power to help the main girl would actually do it. People talk about "all Cal did", but Maven did so much more and even made Cal do things in order to give Mare what she wanted. The whole time reading I wanted him to die. Even after Maven's betrayal I was waiting for him to die. Don't even get me started on Mare who said early on in Red Queen that she wanted to marry Kilorn only to barely mention him until he shows up again. She only seems to think about him when he shows up except for that part and after he shows up a few times with the Guard. (He also gets pissed off then shows up again like everything is fine and Mare not knowing how to deal with his anger was put aside like it was no big deal??) Kilorn barely got any interaction with Mare that it's frustrating to hear now in the second book he's been friendzoned. Mare explicitely was worried about not getting to marry him to the point of being cold towards her betrothed (for more reasons than just Kilorn), but then be a hypocrite and fall for Cal. Back to Cal though. He didn't care for her people and didn't believe in change, but finding out his brother betrayed them all suddenly makes Cal an angel? The man was ready to let millions of Reds continue to die. He chose his kingdom much like Maven chose his own. Since Kilorn, the only one who could possibly be okay for Mare, is friend-zoned and it seems Mare is becoming a strong independent woman it would be nice if Mare never ended up with anyone. People are saying Mare might die, and honestly I would be 100% okay with that with no romance advancing past the obligatory random kisses that need to happen, because this is a young adult novel. (Still not a fan of when Mare didn't fight Cal when she already told him 'no' thereby inforcing the absurd notion that when girls say 'no' that they mean 'yes' and guys should force it anyway, and the unnecessary one when she was trying to convince him to choose her. All the one's with Maven were well placed and made sense. He also didn't push it when she pulled away from him at the play. I hope this isn't a ploy to say guys who are respectful are evil.) In the end, I hope Mare completes her goal, doesn't end up with anyone, and dies happily or cruelly who knows. I want to like straight stories, but they all seem to do the same. This isn't to say "all straight stories are awful", because there are ones I like. Dark Visions is one I've read where the cookie cutter "typical forced love interest" doesn't end up with the girl. L.J.Smith does some good stuff. I just wanted to put my faith in Victoria only to sense the romance is weighing the story down. Everything else is perfect and drew me in to the point that I couldn't put it down. It was the romance parts that made me sigh or roll my eyes. Here's hoping the final book fixes this issue.